So here we go again....little critters....come out wherever you are....

Just one to get this started, our new little long haired guinea pig.

He's only about 7 weeks old and in with two of the females, they think they've just pulled a toy boy rock star. He thinks he's in heaven....well he would if he could catch em....lol

Pretty cute little guy.

Let's hope he doesn't suffer the same fate as your poor boar Caro. This toy boy guinea would slow down if he heard that story ... Too much of a good thing can be hazardous to a males health!

Terry, I don't want to worry you or anything, but yesterday when I went to feed the hogs, the boar was missing. He had torn up a portion of fence and had gotten into the girls' pasture. We looked all over for him and found him in the barn...dead. We think that perhaps he bred with all the girls, then went into the barn for a little nap, and had a heart attack. There was no sign of trauma on him, and it did look rather like he was smiling.....

An inverted example of the standard ...
"Pigs, they're all men" ?
;-)

Thanks for the warning Carolyn, I'll try to restrict myself in future ;-)

Ahem. I was actually referring to the little guinea pig, Terry.

Contination of the spider theme, but now in it's proper place.
It rained for much of the day today, then about 3.00pm the sun came out and it warmed up really fast. One evergreen bush came alive with spiders of all shapes and sizes, must have been about 40 all re-building their webs. If you've never watched one closely, then do so at the first opportunity, the accuracy is incredible. First they construct the spokes running along the last one created in order to form the next one, then they do the wheel starting at the outside and working in. The larger ones do every third circle first, then go back and fill in the other two. I'm one of those people who can't get a length of string off the ball without knotting it all up. These little spinners string out a sticky line and fix it to other sticky lines using only a couple of back legs.

Ok, I'll fess up to taking the time to watching that closely too, long enough to sort out their method. Anyone else willing to own up to it?

That was such a great shot, it deserves another look!
And if you think have trouble with a ball of string Terry, you should see Larry with a box of plastic film/saran wrap ;-) What a mess!

Here's our little runt getting his/her breakfast, now feeding on it's own as well so it looks like a survivor, but it was touch and go at one point.

Isn't he cute? What we don't do for our animals, right Terry?

Alex brought home a little litter runt kitten two weeks ago, that we had to nurse with an eye dropper too Terry! And I am glad to report she has almost doubled in size and is now feeding like a lioness. Drags a lump of canned food around like it was an antelope, while growling at imaginary competition. 'Imaginary' cause all the other 4-footers around here run from her. They are scared to death of those claws and tired of her trying to search their coats for milk tanks.
Glad your urchin is coming along well too, Terry! Now if I could just find a home for ours. Maybe I could trade it for a plant ?!? lol!

Now let me ramble some more on your thread ;-)
The basin in your pic - every house seemed to have those, in all sizes. The perfect mixing bowls and just the right shape for steamings puds. The glaze, clay and shapes are so traditional that I suspect there is some history there I would love to hear. Does anyone know what area the clay comes from and such?

Can't give you any info on the bowl Maggie, other than to say that it has no history, it's only about one year from new. All the old styles are becoming available as people realise how durable and suited to their purpose they are. We are having a real upsurge in the use of traditional terracotta pots in all shapes and sizes. There are so many sources of clay in this Country, we have a clayware manufacturer very close by. They used to just do drainage pipes, but have now branched out into garden containers and ornaments, such is the demand.

There are 4 or 5 kinds of traditional crockery on my shelves that I have always wanted to find out more about. When things have been produced for centuries, there is bound to be a great story. I always love seeing the blue and white stripe ones still being made - altho I know there are lot of knockoff lines of it. Then there is the yellow clay Sunshine ... stop me stop me... there's enough there for a whole new site.

Always knew you were potty, Maggie...hee hee.

Sounds like the kettle calling the pot black, to me. (big winkie grin)

If you two can break away from your potties for a moment, I would like to see some more baby-guinea-pigs-at-play pics and see a photo of baby kittie.

We'd better behave Terry, before she gets potty mouthed with us!

Seeing as Carolyn is the one with the shotgun, who am I to argue J Piggy pics as soon as I get a gap in my busy schedule. House maintenance is the order of the day L

Ok, the kitty pic is going on my critter thread, instead a here on Terry's.
And I'm sorry Caro, but I can't help if that kitten has a spotted pot belly.

Cute kittie, but I'm not pulling up that thread of yours that took 5 min. this morning to load. So, sorry Terry, the cute kittie stuff from me is going here. Hope you find a home for him. You probably should keep him. 3 housekitties is a good number.

Feel free to use my space Carolyn, they do soon grow these threads. Four cats is the ideal number, always one being sick, needing feeding, scratching or catching something.

How's the house maintenance going Terry?

That was a bit below the belt Maggie, just as I'm trying to forget that ladder....Yippee none today cause it's raining. Nearly finished patching up for another year, just the sheds to treat now. I bet nothing ever rots in Texas, too little moisture?

Terry, please explain to us what it is you have to do for house maintenance. We "do" have dry rot over here, but are you referring to, is it called "damp?" I'd really like to hear more about it.

Oh gosh, I've got to try to post again, and this thing is so screwed up!

Damp Carolyn is what things get when it rains, now I know you Texans can't imagine the concept of damp. If you turn on the shower and that wet stuff comes out that is what we refer to as water. When it comes into contact with solids it makes them damp.
Sorry Carolyn couldn't resist that.
We get rot in our exposed timberwork, but I suspect mine is wet rot, not the dreaded dry rot.
When my bungalow was built the builder had an aversion to cement, in that he hardly used any so the pointing to the ends of the roof were very porous and trapped water just above the bargeboards, with the resulting rot from constant dampness.
Now about to enter the mysterious dimension between posting and reading...hang onnnnnnnnnnn

Hmmm. Will have to pull out my collection of Gothic novels. Must have remembered the wrong word (or not remembered the right word..). I thought "damp" was a term used to mean something like wet rot. Looks like "brain" rot strikes again.

Too bad about that building snafu. What do you use to seal it? And is it something you must do each year? I'm a bit clueless (a lie!!....totally clueless) about "bargeboards", but will look it up in the dictionary later.

I do have a story about rot, though. At our old farmhouse, we had a wooden porch with a wooden railing hanging off the second floor of the house, directly above the dining room windows. The last couple of years we lived there, I wouldn't let the kids play on that porch, because I could tell the railing had some rotten places and I was afraid they would lean against it and fall to the ground.

I used the dining room as the school room when we lived there and that was where my son and another boy had their lessons. I always sat at the end of the table facing the windows.

One day, I was giving a history lesson, and I stopped mid-sentence, just before there was a loud crashing noise. I had just seen the entire porch fall past the window and explode into a million pieces. The kids and I were astounded that the thing had actually fallen off the house. We walked outside and just looked at the shattered porch. When the boys could speak again, they said they finally understood why I hadn't let them play on the porch.

That's my only rot story. J

It's just a cement sand mix, Carolyn, to seal the gap between the underside of the tiles and a strip of asbestos above the timber fascia board. If it's done properly it should only need doing about once every twenty years. I shall probably be doing it again next year J
Lucky no one was outside when that porch came down.

Terry, is asbestos still used in building materials in England? Do you hear about the effects of being around it like we do in the states?

No way is it used now Gail, but it was 20 years ago...it's the dust that causes the problems, as long as you don't work it there's no problem. That is of course the white asbestos, the blue is a different matter, avoid that one at all costs.

Christmas Guinea Pigs just arrived, we spotted three, then next time we looked there were four. It appears that one mom gave birth to three and another to one later the same day. All one day old in the pic and doing fine. Another momma is very fat so could be three lots by Christmas day.

P.S. Dad is at the top of this thread, and obviously he did catch em.

Pretty cute babies, Terry. The one on the right looks like a tiny lion.

Can you leave the mamas and their babies together, or do you have to give them each their own cage? If you leave them together it must be something to see them sort out the babies at meal times.

Do you keep all the babies? They are all so cute. They remind me of the days when our kids had hampsters.

Love seeing those babies Terry! Will they have the dad's long hair? He is so cuddly looking, ahem, I mean handsome.

You can leave them all in the same pen MK, even the male, but we took him out because we don't want to be over run with them. It is a battle at feeding time because female guinea pigs only have two nipples (will the censor allow this) and they can have anything up to 15 babies. this is why they have the ability to start eating solid food when only one day old.
Not sure whether or not they will develop the long hair Maggie. I suspect that it will be a recessive factor and therefore won't show in these youngsters.

Tnanks for the mini lessons on the guinea pigs Terry. As a farm girl I find that kind of info on animals fascinating. Wow! 15 babies and only 2 facets - poor mama g.pig. Will one of the other mamas let the extra baby nurse? I know some of the sheep can get quite mean to a baby that goes exploring where it should not. The lambs learn quite fast which ewes to stay out from under and which ones they can sneak a quick drink from.

They are not too bad at sharing babies MK, don't know how they can stand any of them, those babies are born with a full set of teeth...Ouch.

Terry has his Dec pages up. Having changed whatsits, you can only access them with this link right now.
Terry's Dec Garden in S. Yorkshire, England
Beautiful pages, as always!

On the Christmas decoration theme Terry, I wanted to tell you that I esp appreciated the connection of your vintage road scene and the pic of Christines mantle with the wonderful copper lantern, possibly from that era or an earlier time in road travel. Jolly good! Is the road pic of a Yorkshire town?

On the plant pics, has your Fatshedera ever bloomed? Mine only did in the last two extra-warm winters that you have had this year, so far. Even tho it is not colorful showy flower, I think a sensational piece of design.

What a lovely winter garden! Makes me long for a warmer climate. I especially liked the picture of the black bamboo.

Christine has excellent taste in her Christmas decorating. I wish I could take a tour of your place this month. Want to send some air line tickets?

The road is the centre of Barnsley Maggie,I believe in the late 19C. The area is much the same today but many of the buidings now have new shop fronts and of course the horses have gone.
The Fatshedera got as far as producing flower buds one autumn but the frost killed the young growth as it does most winters. Some people this far north are successful at growing the true Fatsia Japonica, but I have tried it twice and lost it in the first winter both times. It would probably have survived the last two winters as they have been rather mild.

I only bought the black bamboo last year MK. It took almost a year before it produced new stems and leaves. Mine is quite a young plant but I have seen more mature ones and the canes are like polished ebony.

It's a long trip MK, and believe me you would see all my garden in about ten minuites, it is only tiny compared to your acres. You would of course be extemely welcome, as would anyone else who finds themselves in my locality.

I have been wanting to tell you how much I enjoyed your coverage of the local canal Terry, and was so glad to learn that there are preservation tactics being taken in the country, despite the canals' lack of modern commercialism. I have great memories of some southern canals. One of which is Sunday jaunts to the "White Swan" pub, where families would gather in the garden for a pleasant afternoon and the kiddies would be taken for row boat 'cruises' along wildflower banks, among white swans. The highlight of the day was when a live-on canal boat passed within seeming reach. How magic it was to imagine living on the water. I returned there recently to find the everything was just about the same. Sometimes you CAN go home again!

My canal memories are of an unused canal which had it's last barge left part submerged. It stayed there for years gradually rotting away until it finally disappeared below the water. There is now a supermarket built where it came to rest. Other sections of the same stretch of water were our haunts for collecting tadpoles and just about anything else that we came across. Not the leeches I hasten to add, there were lots of them, some six inches long. One summers day the banks were alive with millions of tiny black frogs just emerged from the water. The ground was literally covered in them. We must have taken home about 500 in an old can that we found. The whole of that section of canal has now been drained, but it is good to see others coming back to their former glory.

You have inspired me to dig out the pics of that canal visit Terry and scan them in for a mini Virtual Stroll for the forum. (I'll add it to my list ;-)